More details are brought to light about the experiments that were done on River by the government and the Alliance conspiracy that she learned by accident through her powers, driving her insane. Pursued by a ruthless and devoted Government Operative, the crew seek to solve the mystery surrounding River Tam and the Alliance that has caused them so much misery, and perhaps use it to get out from under the thumb of the Alliance once and for all.

This film provides examples of:

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A–F

Abandon Ship: Two separate cases in the film's climax. The Operative uses an escape pod to flee his flagship, while Mal and the others leave Serenity after it lands on Mr. Universe's base and the Reavers begin to harpoon it.

Absent Aliens: Per standard Firefly canon, no alien life whatsoever exists in the star system inhabited by humans. All conflict is strictly human versus human.

Act of True Love: The film starts with Simon breaking his sister out of the Alliance research facility where she was being experimented on. On viewing a recording of it, the Operative and the lead researcher discuss Simon's motives, and the fact that he pretty much threw his life away to do it. The scientist thinks it's insane, but the Operative points out that he's motivated by love, which makes him even more dangerous.

Aesoptinum: The Pax, an experimental chemical agent that the Alliance used to attempt to control possible violence in one of its colonies. It ended up failing spectacularly when most of the test subjects became so passive that they simply lay down and died of starvation, with a very small portion of the population instead becoming monstrous Reavers.

Affably Evil: The Operative. While he does extremely despicable things, he also praises his enemies, apologizes for his evil deeds, is perfectly willing to negotiate, and spares and helps the crew once he believes killing them would not serve any useful purpose.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Since cost and lives are no object to recovering River Tam, the Operative begins by killing every contact and destroying every criminal hideout that Serenity could use to stay hidden.

The Operative: When your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to.

Always Chaotic Evil: The Reavers are savage, mindlessly aggressive people whose sole purpose seems to be spreading death and destruction to everything they come across. Rape, cannibalism and self-mutilation are their hobbies. It is revealed that the original Reavers were Miranda colonists who had a negative reaction to an experimental mind-altering chemical agent.

And the Adventure Continues: The truth about the Alliance's actions on Miranda has been transmitted all over the Verse, and the Operative reports that it will weaken the current regime, but likely won't bring it down completely. Meanwhile, the crew of Serenity stays on the run (with River now serving as pilot full-time), with the future of the Verse anything but certain...

Anti-Hero: The crew are all differing types, from Simon, the straight arrow on the wrong side of the law, down to Jayne Cobb, a murderous thug who met Mal by trying to rob and kill him, until Mal offered him a job that paid better, leading Jayne to kill his old crew instead.

Anyone Can Die: Two major characters whom the audience know and love die in the movie. Book and Wash. According to the commentary, this is precisely why those two died, to heighten tension and make that final fight scene, in which nearly everyone else is hurt, all the more scary.

Apocalyptic Log: Given by Dr. Caron, the female scientist on Miranda, explaining what has happened to the people and how it created Reavers, the greatest threat of the 'verse. Once the crew finds it, they resolve to Bring News Back to the rest of the 'verse, revealing the Alliance's scheme.

Apologetic Attacker: River beats up Simon to get to the bridge. Afterward, she explains that she didn't know if he was going to make her sleep, whereupon Simon wryly says, "you could have asked." Simon of course, always forgives his dear little sister. Also the Operative, who apologizes to Mal for killing all the crew's contacts (including an entire settlement with children and noncombatants), acknowledging that it was an evil deed.

Arc Words: River is haunted by the words "Lie down" in her dreams. The Alliance poisoned the planet Miranda and its people lay down and died.

Armor-Piercing Response: Kaylee directs an absolutely perfect one to Mal after he boots Simon and River off of the crew. Mal is left speechless, and Zoe and Wash wisely stay out of Kaylee's way after she storms off in a huff.

Ax-Crazy: River at times, though it turns out she has a very good reason for it. She's been conditioned to respond to certain triggers, one apparently being "attack everyone." She also absorbed a number of the Alliance's dirtiest secrets, such as the accidental genocide of 30 million people on Miranda. Knowing that your benevolent government was behind creating the Reavers would be enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone reliving the events leading up to it.

Band of Brothels: The Guild of Companions. After leaving the ship, Inara has become a teacher to licensed Companions in training.

Bar Brawl: Started by River, ended by her. Very, very quickly. She destroys the pub, and takes down many, many innocentnote For certain values of "innocent," in the kind of bar Mal and his associates frequent people. Mal considers it likely that some of them died.

Mal, Jayne and Zoe share this view, at least when it comes to Reavers. When a bystander is captured, Mal shoots him dead before the Reavers can cut into him, an act later described by Zoe as "a piece of mercy". When Jayne looks like he is going to be captured, he asks Mal to do the same to him. The view seems to be universal among anybody who knows about Reavers.

Cruelly subverted with the Miranda recording, in which the scientist tries to shoot herself after it becomes clear that she is not going to escape the Reavers. She does not do it quickly enough.

Big Brother Instinct: Simon's principal motivation, largely fulfilled when his little sister is taken off the Alliance's must-kill list at the end of the movie.

Big Brother Is Watching: Suggested strongly throughout the film, but also notable with the Oaty Bar commercial, where a message pops up during it saying "NOT MANDATORY", suggesting the Alliance are such control freaks they tell the population what to eat.

Biological Weapons Solve Everything: Failed spectacularly. The Alliance attempted to use an engineered gas to make the populace of a colony world peaceful and non-aggressive. The gas worked too well: most of the population became so apathetic that they just lay down and died. The others became hyper-violent berserkers, known as the Reavers.

Bittersweet Ending: For the film and the series as a whole. The crew exposes the Alliance's crimes and turns the Verse against them, the Operative spares them once he sees that killing them will accomplish nothing, most of the remaining Reavers have been destroyed, Kaylee and Simon get their Relationship Upgrade, and the crew gets to fly off into the sunset. But Book, Wash, Mr. Universe, and whole communities of other good people had to die to make it all happen... and while it's suffered a crippling blow to its good publicity, the Alliance is still active and will probably try to hunt down the crew for vengeance eventually.

Black Dude Dies First: Shepherd Book, if we're talking just about the main cast. Otherwise, we've got whole settlements wiped out before him.

Black Screen of Death: When River makes her last stand against the Reavers, the screen cuts to black, and we don't find out how the fight is going for several minutes.

Blessed with Suck: River is a psychic and a Waif-Fu combat goddess, but was forced to trade her emotional stability and her grip on what's real, and is unable to shut out other people's thoughts and emotions.

"Blind Idiot" Translation: Although (according to the DVD) a translator worked hard to get Chinese slang correct, and the actors studied tape recorders, apparently it was still mangled in the pronunciation.

Bookends: At the beginning, as Serenity enters a planet's atmosphere, a piece of the ship falls off. In the very last scene, after Serenity is rebuilt, the same thing happens as the ship takes off.

[clunk]Mal: What was that?

Many of the Operative's words to the Alliance scientist at the beginning of the movie are the same as his words to Mal in the final fight.

Bowdlerise: Usually when this film airs on television, River's involvement in the heist at the start of the film (in which she uses her psychic powers to detect danger) isn't shown. It's either cut for time, or because networks don't like the idea of a teenager helping out in something criminal, being depicted in a film.

The fact that Jayne Cobb is the most comfortable with gore and violence makes it all the more significant when he is the one to demand the transmission of the Reavers messily killing the scientist be turned off. Jayne's fear of the Reavers in general seems to evoke this trope.

When the Reaver fleet appears out of the Space Cloud in front of the Alliance fleet, it is the Operative—stoic, nerveless mass-murderer and Knight Templar—who reacts with terror and desperation. (Although at least he acts: everybody else is too stunned to do anything.)

Mal instructs Jayne not to bring grenades to a meet because they aren't trying to blow people up. Jayne pouts, and then gets in an "I told you so" when the Reavers show up. Much, much later, on Miranda, the Reavers attack them, and this time he brought the grenades.

Bring News Back: After learning the horrible truth about what happened on Miranda, Mal and the crew of Serenity set out to reach the only means of sending/spreading the report on what happened. It's something of a variant on this in that the only "authority figures" around, the Alliance, had the report buried, since they were responsible for the whole thing, but Mal is determined to get the message out in order to speak for the people who died there, and to strike a serious blow against the Alliance.

Bulletproof Vest: The Operative plans to talk to the heroes. He's not there to fight, so he comes unarmed. But he's not a complete moron...

Call-Back: In the series pilot, Mal says that the Reavers are obligated to chase you if you try to run from them. Not only does the entire Reaver fleet chase them from Miranda to Mr. Universe's planet, but one of the ships chases them when they try to flee the battle to land.

Mr. Universe: From here to the eyes and the ears of the 'Verse, that's my motto. Or, it would be, if I started having a motto.

Ceiling Cling: River Tam avoids an Alliance patrol while escaping from the laboratory by planting each foot on either wall of the corridor and grabbing a ceiling protrusion with one hand. Summer Glau pulls it off with no trickery.

The Champion: Simon, having given up his entire life to find and rescue River, will not rest until she is truly safe—though he does realize that he need not neglect his feelings for Kaylee in the process.

Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mal suffers a vicious case of it. It's mostly under control at the start of the film, then has a flare-up about half-way after it's been irritated by exposure to the truth about Miranda.

Close-Knit Community: Between the series and the film, Shepherd Book left Serenity and settled in a small town called Haven, where everyone seems to be friendly to both the crew and each other. The town is well named when Serenity needs shelter after a job.

Cold Open: The movie opens with the Universal Logo becomingEarth That Was, accompanied by a narration... that turns out to be a school lesson... that turns out to be a memory... which turns into a nightmare; then River is rescued, which turns out to be security footage being played back; then we fade into the title sequence and Serenity.

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Alliance wears primarily blue and grey to match all their shiny tech. The Browncoats wear, um, brown, red, yellow, and orange, which goes with the Wild West setting. This symbolizes the Alliance's cold modernism versus the Browncoats' heart. The Tams wear dark blue, perhaps signifying their previous ties to the Alliance. The Reavers wear... heavily stained human skins.

Being a soldier-turned-outlaw smuggler and no longer bound by anything resembling official rules beyond "keep the ship flying", Mal has no qualms with bringing a gun to a proverbial knife (or, in the Operative's case, sword) fight. Mal shoots not one, not two, but three unarmed men over the course of the two hour film. Of course, when put up against an exemplary swordsman and martial artist such as the Operative, fighting dirty (and obfuscating his immunity to a certain attack) is just about the only reason Mal's able to keep up with him.

The Operative: I want to resolve this like civilised men. I'm not threatening you. I'm unarmed—... Mal: Good! (immediately draws his gun and shoots the Operative right out of his chair)

As for Jayne? He's always been a fight-loving outlaw. While Mal avoids rules perhaps out of necessity due to the responsibilities placed upon him by his captaincy, Jayne flat-out doesn't care about them.

Jayne: Hell, I'll kill a man in a fair fight—or if I think he's going to start a fair fight. ...

Coming In Hot: Serenity crash-landing after being disabled by an EMP weapon.

During Mal's Shirtless Scene, you can see the scar where he got stabbed in "The Train Job," and another from Niska's torture device in "War Stories." Speaking of which, the "Mule II" hovercar is the official replacement for the "Mule" ATV that was destroyed in that episode.

Crapsaccharine World: On the surface, the Alliance is a highly advanced parliamentary democracy. Start digging deeper and you have oppression and abuse perpetrated in the name of making them better. From relatively minor atrocities like involuntary surgery and brainwashing on children, all the way up to annihilating entire colonies and covering it up to avoid public censure. We know from the series that the free market reigns, with everything from indebted slaves to corporations withholding vital medicines for a profit to terraforming hackjobs apparently performed by the lowest bidders...

The Operative informs Mal that his ship has locked onto Serenity's pulse beacon and will fire with a single command. Mal responds by handing him that pulse beacon. He also preps six decoys for nav sat tracking, Serenity being signal #7.

Inara lights a flashbomb disguised as an incense stick—unbeknownst to Mal or The Operative.

The Operative might arguably qualify near the end, bringing in the entire fleet just to deal with one ship. Turned out to be extremely useful when Mal tricked a second fleet into pursuing him.

The Operative: The girl will rain down destruction on you and your ship. She is an albatross, Captain. Mal: Way I remember it, an albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it. [Inara narrows her eyes] Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.

Danger Deadpan: Wash is a completely different character when flying the ship: normally he's loud and panicky, but at the helm, he is completely calm and collected, no matter what imminent doom might be following him.

Mr. Universe survives his stabbing long enough to record a message using his lovebot.

Mr Universe: Guy killed me, Mal. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that?

Dr. Caron (the female scientist on the planet Miranda) says in her holographic message "I won't live to report this..." because she knows that the Reavers will soon attack and kill her. Moments later they do so, in a chilling and horrifying manner.

Death Glare: At one point Jayne, in his usual carelessly offensive manner, manages to irritate Zoe. She tells him that he wants to leave the room. And he does.

Deception Noncompliance: Inara's conversation with Mal may have looked quite natural to the person forcing her to have it, but Mal correctly concludes that since they didn't argue at all, it was actually intended to lure him into a trap.

Demoted to Extra: Shepherd Book only appears in two scenes before his tragic death.

Despair Event Horizon: River's dialogue indicates that she crossed it at some point during her time at the Academy. The Operative crosses when he learns the Alliance made the Reavers. The R. Tam Sessions used to promote the movie sees the entire Break the Cutie process in action. Poor River...

Determinator: Mal, who does not let little things like swords in his stomach get in the way. The Operative himself stops for nothing in his crusade for a better world.

Disability Immunity: The Operative hits Mal with the same pressure point attack that's paralysed his victim in the opening sequence. He gives his customary salute, prepares to run Mal through—and gets his throat punched. "Piece of shrapnel tore up that nerve cluster'n my first tour. Had it moved."

Double-Meaning Title: Serenity is (obviously) the name of the spaceship, but the title also alludes to the Alliance's plan to control the people of the 'Verse by using drugs to make them naturally peaceful and docile. Historically, the title refers to the Battle of Serenity Valley and more broadly the Order vs. Chaos struggle between "civilisation" (The Alliance) and independence (The, erm, Independents) that forms the undercurrent of the film. Thematically, the Operative, Mal, and River are all looking for peace of mind.

Dramatic Irony: The audience and Mal know what the Reavers are, but the Operative does not, and boy is he in for a surprise...

The Operative: There are a lot of innocent people in the air being killed right now. Mal: You don't know how true that is.

Dream Intro: The opening classroom scene is really a dream/memory that River experiences while being "treated" in the Academy.

Dressing as the Enemy: The crew successfully disguises Serenity as a Reaver ship by splashing it with blood-red paint and tying whole corpses to the front—using their murdered friends as those corpses.

Driving into a Truck: The Mule escapes the Reavers by flying straight into Serenity's hold—while the ship is also flying.

Dropped a Bridge on Him: Poor Wash is abruptly impaled by a Reaver harpoon in the moment of his greatest triumph—successfully flying through a massive space battle and crash-landing Serenity on Mr. Universe's compound.

Dual Wielding: River uses a sword and axe taken off the Reavers during the big showdown.

Dutch Angle: Used when River "scans" the occupants of the trader outpost.

Earn Your Happy Ending: A lot of people die in order to reveal the horrible truth about Miranda to the whole 'Verse.

Earth That Was: Humanity has migrated to a large multi-star solar system and Terraformed dozens of planets and moons. Earth appears at the very beginning, showing the colonists leaving it. "Was" is very appropriate; most of the planet is a sickly shade of brown, and there are several large explosions going off, possibly nuclear. The series is the Trope Namer.

Emergency Cargo Dump: Discussed Trope. Zoe wonders why Mal refused to let a civilian tag along with them to escape a Reaver attack (Mal subsequently Mercy Killed him), and he says their hovercraft won't carry five. Zoe says they could've dumped the cargo, but Mal says they couldn't afford to fail the job.

Epic Tracking Shot: After 10 minutes of schizophrenic, Smash Cut-ridden intro, we get the title card, and then a 4-minute-long Oner that brings us home to the ship and her crew. (Movie Magic Tidbit: the sets for Serenity are divided between top and bottom levels. The cut was disguised with a whip pan on one of the stairwells so that it looks like a single take.)

Escape Pod: Used by the Operative to escape his flagship as it was being destroyed.

The Operative: In certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords. Director:[sarcastically] Well, unfortunately I forgot to bring a swor— [The Operative pulls out a sword]

The first scene aboard Serenity is a continuous take which highlights each member of the crew, as Mal walks through the ship and talks to each one of them.

When the crew figures out that "Miranda" is a planet, Serenity makes a perilous journey through Reaver territory, to try to find out why Miranda is so important. When they finally land planet-side, they discover the long dead corpses of an entire planet's population. Of course there were once survivors, but they all turned into Reavers.

Earlier, after the Operative has been outwitted by the crew of Serenity one more time, he proceeds to have everyone who has ever provided shelter to the crew killed, en masse, including any inconvenient bystanders and Shepherd Book. This is what pushes Mal into going to Miranda to find out just what the Alliance is trying to hide.

During the opening robbery, River and Zoe have a short conversation using nothing but facial expressions that goes something like, "That guy has a gun and he's about to pull it." "You sure? He looks like a hick." "Yes, I am sure, now stop him before he moves!"

When Inara first sets eyes on the Operative, her previously cheerful expression disappears completely.

When River's big brother Simon mistakenly thinks that River might have multiple personalities, he asks if he is speaking to Miranda now. River's reply is a What an Idiot glance at her brother.

Fake in the Hole: Seen in the deleted scenes, when Mal and Inara escape from the Operative. Mal throws a real, but not armed, grenade, making the Feds near his shuttle dive off for cover... then Mal picks the grenade back up and goes on his way. Had it been left in, it'd be an Establishing Character Moment for Mal—cunning, pragmatic, frugal, and ultimately preferring the non-violent path.

Kaylee: I didn't plan on going out like this. Simon: I never planned anything. I just wanted to keep River safe. Spent so much time on Serenity ignoring anything I wanted for myself. My one regret in all of this... is never being with you. Kaylee: You mean to say... sex? Simon: ...I mean to say. Kaylee:Hell with this.[cocks her gun] I'm gonna live!

Forced Friendly Fire: During River's Bar Brawl, someone pulls a gun with the intent to shoot her. She simply grabs his arm and forces him to aim past her, shooting one of the fighters on her other side.

Forced to Watch: Mal beats down the Operative and ties him to a railing while he broadcasts the recording of the PAX log. The Operative is devastated.

Foreshadowing: The Alliance lacks manpower to keep peace on the outer planets so they hire private contractors. When they tried to subdue a planet by themselves in the past, they accidentally poisoned its people.

Funny Background Event: During Kaylee's old recording of Inara before she left, River can be seen in the background being... well, being River, leaning over Inara's bed.

The Pax. The drug did work as advertised: people were rendered calm by it, so much so that they neglected their own well-being out of apathy.

The Alliance wanted to create an unstoppable psychic spy/assassin in the form of River, and in the process, they got exactly what they wanted—only said psychic spy/assassin turned against them and blew the whole Miranda scandal wide open.

Gone Horribly Wrong: Also the Pax. As with any drug, a small segment of the population proved to have an adverse reaction, creating the hyper-violent Reavers.

Good Old Fisticuffs: The Operative is a trained and skilled martial artist, Mal just hits things.

Gory Discretion Shot: Sarah Paulson's recording ends with her being attacked by the Reavers. She's moved out of the frame, but the sound leaves no doubt about her fate.

The Government: The evacuation of Earth, naturally, required an Alliance between all the governments of Earth (chiefly America and China, whose languages are still commonly spoken). The Alliance was still necessary afterward to arrange terraforming and prevent clashes over viable worlds. By the time of the film, the Alliance is no longer necessary but still in charge, and those at the top are determined to stay in charge, providing a faceless Greater-Scope Villain responsible for sending the Operative.

The Mandarin-ish and Cantonese-oid phrases scattered through the dialogue, often as family-friendly swearwords. Doubles as a Bilingual Bonus. As the DVD set shows, they use actual Mandarin phrases, although as mentioned above, the pronunciation is so atrocious that even native speakers will have trouble deciphering them, and some of them are absolutely hilarious in English.

The trigger phrase that Simon uses to put River to sleep after she clears out the bar is Russian, "Это курам насмех", meaning literally "This is hilarious to chickens", an old Russian saying used to denote something ridiculous.

Groin Attack: When River's violent programming is triggered in the bar on Beaumonde, in the middle of trashing the place and beating the crap out of everyone within reach, she grabs Jayne's package and squeezes. Hard. Jayne is icing it down in the next scene. This could be a subtle Brick Joke to the episode "Trash", when River insulted Jayne by stating that his is a girl's name, to which he angrily replied, "I'll show her good and all I got man parts."

Hand Signals: While the crew is exploring the planet Miranda, Zoe takes the point position and uses gestures to guide the movements of the rest of the team.

Hard Work Montage: At the very end, the remaining crew put Serenity back together after her crash landing.

Hate Plague: A small portion of Miranda's population had an extremely violent reaction to the Pax, becoming the first Reavers.

Have a Nice Death: The Operative usually offers one of these. He's not being insincere or mocking when he does this, since he's pretty big on the "honorable death" thing.

The Operative: This is a good death. There is no shame in this.

Heal It with Booze: After being shot through the leg by a Reaver harpoon, Jayne busies himself by pouring his flask over his leg wound... and then taking a swig.

The Heavy: The Operative is a secret government agent who represents the Alliance's interests and carries out their plans to use extreme measures to create a better world. The government elite who give him his orders remain unseen, so he's the closest to an overarching villain in the movie and presents the biggest threat to the heroes.

Heel Realization: The Operative upon seeing the evidence of what happened on Miranda.

Subverted by River; she declares You Shall Not Pass to the Reavers and locks herself in a room filled with them to save her friends and family. Five minutes later, after everyone believes that she's been raped, killed, eaten, and possibly worn like clothing by the horde (in that order, if she's lucky), the doors slide back open—to reveal her standing completely uninjured and knee deep in enemy corpses.

Subverted earlier. Mal is going to take the shuttle to meet with Inara and spring The Operative's trap. He explicitly tells Zoe that if they do not hear back from him in an hour, "You come and you rescue me."

Played straight with Simon in what amounts to a lingering Heroic Sacrifice through the entire series and movie; he gives up status and fortune and lives with outlaws, so he can rescue and comfort his sister.

The Hero's Journey: Oddly, given the not-particularly-heroic nature of the crew, the film follows this pattern remarkably closely. It begins with Mal performing his everyday duties as a low-end crook and bank robber, only for his routine to be disrupted by a literal Call to Adventure; in this case, the signal that activates River. Though Mal initially refuses the Call, he Crosses the Threshold when the Operative murders his friends. With the aid of River's essentially supernatural powers, he descends through a swarm of monsters onto a planet of the dead, fights his way through a Road of Trials (in this case, a fleet of enemy ships) and then faces the Operative in battle before ultimately forcing him to Atone, while River reaches Apotheosis. In the end, the universe and the heroes Return to a new equilibrium.

Hoist by His Own Petard: In order: the Academy directors saw fit to put their heads of state in a room with a crazy psychic, not just show them video footage; the Operative's broadwave attempts to trigger River prevent Mal from turning the Tams off Serenity; and the Operative's assault on Haven and the other safeholds just makes Mal more determined to figure out what Miranda holds.

Hold the Line: The defense in Mr. Universe's complex against the Reavers. While Mal heads into the complex to broadcast the message, the rest of the crew finds a bottleneck to defend for as long as they can, with a blast door they can close to buy more time once they are in danger of being overwhelmed.

The Horde: The Pax has rendered the Reavers into a slavering horde through no fault of their own.

Humans Are Flawed: Joss states in the commentary that the point he wanted to make with this film is that while the Seven Deadly Sins are bad, they're also inseparable from human nature. This is demonstrated with Miranda, a world where everyone from whom sin was 'removed' is dead—and those who clung to it are no longer human.

Humans Are White: For a universe which is heavily Asian inspired and merged completely with Chinese culture, none of the main cast members even have Asian features; Tam is likely a Chinese surname, but Simon and River don't look at all Chinese. Even the colonists, Alliance navy and (from what little one can see) Reavers tend to be mostly Caucasian.

Ill Girl: River, of course. The experiments performed on her at the Academy, specifically the knowledge of what the Alliance did on Miranda gleaned through her telepathy, have driven her quite insane.

I'm a Humanitarian: One of threethings the Reavers do to their victims. And if you're very, very lucky, they kill you first. From the Mercy Kill scene, it's clear they prefer their dinners alive and screaming.

Indy Ploy: At first, Mal is forced into Villains Act, Heroes React by the Operative's campaign of destruction. When he finally decides that he will take no more, he switches to the Indy Ploy, uncertain how he can make things turn out well but determined to do so.

Infant Immortality: Averted. The Operative is not above killing children, as he flat out informs Mal. As proof of this, when the characters arrive at Haven, Kaylee (the crew's most soft-hearted member) comes across a dead little boy about 10 years old (one whom she was briefly seen interacting with affectionately, earlier in the film). The Operative is aware that this is his Moral Event Horizon, but argues that these deeds are Necessarily Evil.

Instant-Win Condition: The Operative's mission is to eliminate River Tam before any of the big state secrets she has in her mind can be let out. He's willing to kill huge numbers of people, the protagonists included, to pursue this mission. Once the broadcast of the 'Pax' report goes out, that mission is a failure, so he has his men stand down, as the damage is done, and killing Mal and the others is no longer "necessary" to him.

In the Back: "You shot me in the back! I haven't made youangry, have I?"

Intro Dump: For viewers who haven't seen Firefly, the intro explains that Earth has been abandoned and humanity now occupies another star system, the backstory elements of the Alliance/Independents war, River's treatment at the Academy and Simon's rescue, and introduces us to Serenity and seven of the nine major characters who already know each other. All done in ten minutes with admirable deftness.

Ironic Echo: When Mal shows the Miranda recording to the Operative, he forces the latter to eat his words about how he was building "a world without sin" by showing him what such a world would actually look like.

Kick the Dog: After the Serenity crew prevent the Operative from tracking them down twice, he coldly reasons that they have to run somewhere, so he starts destroying every settlement where Malcolm Reynolds is known to have friends or contacts. More chilling than most examples because this is not anger or revenge, just a Scorched Earth strategy.

Kick the Son of a Bitch: It's safe to say that there's no sympathy for Dr. Mathias when the Operative kills him at the beginning. Likewise, the pilot of the Alliance vessel Mal rather ruthlessly murders has just slaughtered a ton of innocent people.

Inara: We have every reason to be afraid. Jayne: Why? 'Cause this guy beat up Mal? That ain't so hard. Mal: Whoa! He didn't beat me up. Nobody said that. Inara: Because he's a believer. He's intelligent, methodical, and devout in his belief that killing River is the right thing to do.

Leader Wannabe: Jayne gets disgusted with Mal's leadership and states his desire to be the leader at one point.

"Miranda" is a character in Shakespeare's The Tempest who famously says "O brave new world that has such people in't" upon seeing people from outside her sheltered island existence; this quote in turn is the inspiration for the title of Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, wherein the dystopian totalitarian state uses drugs to pacify the (genetically engineered) people. A complex multi-layered reference.

My Fist Forgives You: Simon slugs Mal for (what else?) putting River in danger. Interestingly he is the only one of the crew that ever dared do that—it's a Call-Back to the series, where Mal punched Simon (twice!) in the "real" pilot for putting his ship in danger.

Mysterious Past: Book, and to a lesser extent River. Book once again refuses to tell Mal how he knows so much about Alliance business and the criminal underworld.

N–S

Nay-Theist: Mal. More specifically, he is a maltheist. He equates belief to God, giving Book two of his better lines:

Book: When I talk about belief, why do you always assume I'm talking about God?

Book: It doesn't matter what you believe in. As long as you believe.

Necessarily Evil: The Operative views his crusade this way. He abandons this notion after finding out the truth about Miranda.

Neutral Female: Subverted with Inara, who tries to fight the Operative alongside Mal. Key word "tries", given she's a Companion, and he's a highly trained government agent. Although...

Inara: And that's not incense. [flashbang grenade detonates]]

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: The plot of the film is driven almost entirely by the Alliance's efforts to stop River from revealing the information she holds. Had they not activated her subliminal programming or hunted down the crew of the Serenity, the heroes would never have gone to Miranda and learned the secret.

No Name Given: The Operative. His name is taken from Doctor Mathias identifying him as "an operative" of the Alliance Parliament. Of course, the Operative states he doesn't have a name to give anyway, given he officially doesn't exist.

The Operative: I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin. Mal: So me and mine gotta lay down so you can live in your better world? The Operative: I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there, any more than there is for you. Malcolm, I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.

Inara is very good at reading and controlling body language, so when she meets the Operative, the way her smile fades before he even says anything speaks volumes.

The head scientist gets an understated one when Simon says, "She always did love to dance." He has just enough time to realize that this isn't a government official he's been escorting into Top Secret research areas before he is knocked out by the stun grenade.

The crew, when they learn where Miranda is located, as Zoe explains, in-between where they are and Miranda are the Reavers. All the Reavers.

One Woman Army: River's Waif-Fu lets her take on a whole roomful of Reavers and win. She's quite prepared to throw down with the Alliance soldiers, too.

The Paralyzer: The Operative uses a strike that targets vital nerve clusters, paralyzing his victim. He tries it on Mal, but it fails because of a war injury.

Passing the Torch: In the final scene of the film, River takes her place in the cockpit of Serenity, taking over as pilot following Wash's death.

Pass the Popcorn: When Inara calls Mal, the rest of the crew watch on the bridge. Janye brings popcorn.

Perfect Pacifist People: The Alliance tried to create a world like this artificially. They wound up creating a big pile of people who died of apathy. Oh, and the Reavers.

Phlebotinum Rebel: River is the product of a program to develop psychic operatives, but what she saw and learned drove her insane. When she recovers, she is adamantly hostile to them.

Phone-Trace Race: After the Operative has several of the Serenity crew's havens destroyed, he talks to Captain Mal on the Wave (Subspace Ansible). During the conversation Mal tells the Operative they won't be talking long enough for a Wave trace (which would allow the Operative to locate them) and turns off the communications device.

Mal: You know what the first rule of flying is? Well, I suppose you do, since you already know what I'm about to say. River: I do. But I like to hear you say it. Mal: Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse, but you take a boat in the air that you don't love, she'll shake you off as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down, tells you she's hurting before she creels, makes her a home.

"Eight months. Eight months you had her on my boat knowing full well she could go monkeyshit at the wrong word and you never said a thing." It's easy to miss it, but this is a cuss word they couldn't drop on Fox, but could in a Big Damn Movie.

In the movie's novelization by Keith R.A. DeCandido, a version of the scene on Haven where Mal announces his plan to use the corpses of the murdered settlers as part of a disguise for Serenity to cross Reaver space is featured where Mal drops the F-bomb to emphasize his point. Pretty sure the same scene is featured in the early draft of the film's script floating around the 'Net, the version where Wash and Book don't die.

Pressure Point: Used by the Operative as a paralyzing technique, and subverted by Mal in his final fight with the Operative when he pretends to fall victim to this technique. In truth that particular pressure point was rendered invalid by the surgery used to fix a war wound, and he just plays along so he can catch The Operative off guard.

Psychic Powers: River Tam demonstrates uncontrolled telepathy and empathy. It's theorized by some that her combat prowess may be partly attributable to low-level precognition—seeing seconds into the future to determine an enemy's next move. She also has other abilities, such as an ability to discern health problems and locate dead bodies, find her way through strange environments with no guidance, and locate electronic devices or discern problems with machinery. Interestingly, "The R. Tam Sessions" imply that River already had some form of latent psychic ability before the Academy started working on her.

Psycho Serum: G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate ("the Pax") has this effect on about 0.1% of people, turning them into Reavers.

Ramming Always Works: The Operative's ship gets T-boned by a Reaver ship in the final battle, snapping it in half. The latter ship is significantly larger in addition to its chosen orientation, and the Reavers are crazy enough that they don't necessarily care about the damage to their own vessel.

Reasonable Authority Figure: The Operative comes off like this at first. When Dr. Mathias sees him reviewing footage of River's escape, he protests that there was nothing he could have done to prevent that. The Operative actually agrees with this, saying that Simon had spent far too much time and effort preparing for the escape for them to realistically have prevented it. Then he executes Dr. Mathias because he had, inadvertently, leaked government secrets by allowing Parliament members into the same room as a mind-reader.

Rebuilt Set: Serenity looks a tiny bit different from the version seen in the show; most noticeably, the bridge is much smaller and is missing the storage lockers behind Wash's chair.

Retraux: Joss specifically asked for old camera lenses to use to add the "70sWestern" feel.

Revealing Cover-Up: The Alliance spends a whole lot of time and effort hunting down River Tam, including murdering just about everybody who may have been in contact with her, in order to cover up what she learned through her telepathy when she was in the same room as several high-ranking Alliance members. River, being insane, probably doesn't understand what she knows and, in any case, isn't in any position to tell anybody even if she does. But the Alliance's campaign of persecution gives Serenity's crew a big motive to find out and make the information public knowledge.

Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After Mr. Universe sells out Mal, the Operative instead kills him with a sword. How weird is that? Bonus points for getting it right in the middle of asking for his thirty pieces of silver.

Sacrificial Lion: Two main characters from the series, Book and Wash, are killed to highlight the danger of the Operative and the Reavers, respectively.

Schizo Tech: The just-settled Outer Planets have no infrastructures or industries built yet, and the Alliance considers anything past terraforming a low priority, which looks to be how the Alliance controls the outer planets. "Join us and we'll upgrade your tech. Don't and have fun adapting yourself."

School for Scheming: River went to the Alliance-sponsored Academy to learn things. Instead she was tortured and experimented upon.

The Operative seems to be obsessed with them, asking his victims if they know for which sin he is about to kill them. Given that they think they can "make mankind better", the Alliance's chief sin seems to be Pride.

Sex Bot: Mr. Universe has one. Turns out to be useful for other things, too, like messages. It's not entirely clear why they call it this, since it never moves on its own and appears to just be a doll.

Shirtless Scene: Mal and Simon each get one. Joss Whedon actually apologizes in the commentary for shooting shirtless!Mal at such a close angle and not allowing a full look at his physique.

Shoo Out the Clowns: A particularly brutal example. Wash provides much of the film's comic relief, as he does in the show. When the intense final showdown is about to take place, he's properly killed off.

Mal's choice to disguise Serenity as a Reaver vessel is also treated as a Shoot the Dog—he is desecrating the corpses of their deceased friends and turning their home into an abomination in order to defeat the Alliance.

Shoot the Rope: Mal needs several shots to sever the mini-harpoon from Jayne's leg. While he's hanging from the back of the Mule II at full tilt.

Shout-Out: Numerous. Special mention goes to the Reavers, who share the name of the Scottish/English Border-Reivers of the late Middle Ages, and exist in similar political circumstances, with similar behavior.

Special Effect Branding: Both used and subverted throughout Firefly and Serenity. The Alliance and civilian vessels (particularly Serenity) have very distinctive differences from each other. However, while definitely "branded" with their Spikes of Villainy, painted blood, and corpses, the Reaver ships are still recognizable by class - one shot from Serenity's fleet battle shows an Alliance frigate and a Reaverized counterpart of the same ship in great detail.

Stealth Hi/Bye: River, notably in the opening sequence, where she goes from unconscious and Strapped to an Operating Table to fully awake and directly behind Simon in the time it takes him to peer out the door. Simon himself pops up behind Mal when he's preparing to argue against taking River along on the job.

Swallowed a Fly: After a horrific encounter with the Reavers, the crew barely makes it back, and crashes the runabout back onto Serenity. Simon (who stayed behind) is frantic over River, who is oddly calm:

River: I swallowed a bug.

Sword Pointing: The Operative does this to Captain Mal when he first draws his sword during their fight in Mr. Universe's complex.

Thicker Than Water: Simon has given up his entire life for River, and protecting her is still his singular goal.

The Operative: Madness? Have you looked at this scan carefully, Doctor? At his face? It's love, in point of fact. Something a good deal more dangerous.

This Is Reality: The Operative tries to convince Mal to give up with this argument.

The Operative: Nothing here is what it seems. You are not the plucky hero, the Alliance is not an evil empire, and this is not the grand arena.

Throw the Dog a Bone: Once the truth of Miranda is known to the crew and River Stress Vomits, she suddenly finds that the intense pressure of the secret on her psyche has been lifted, leaving her much less insane than before.

River: I'm alright. ... I'm alright.

Tired of Running: Having spent years trying to make a living and simply avoid the Alliance after their victory in the war, Malcolm Reynolds finally finds a reason to fight back: the secret of Miranda.

Mal: A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave.

The Operative: The boy spent his entire fortune developing the contacts to infiltrate this place. Dr. Mathias: Gave up a brilliant future in medicine as well. It's madness. The Operative: Madness? Have you looked at the scan carefully, Doctor? At his face? It's love, in point of fact. Something a good deal more dangerous.

Unperson: There is not a colony on Miranda and there never has been. And Miranda was never terraformed and never can be. And you're under arrest for asking.

Note that Miranda had a population of several million, and the government managed to suppress all knowledge of it entirely, save for a blank entry on the Cortex (the setting's equivalent to the net) and some vague recollections.

Unresolved Sexual Tension: No, it is not your imagination that whenever Mal and Inara get within a foot of each other, electricity shoots out of your screen. It's the UST trying to explode your television/computer.

Unusual Euphemism: Between the Mildly Mandarin swearing, the use of archaic words like "quim", and various other slang such as "gorram" and "shiny", it's hard to find examples of usual euphemisms in this film.

What the Hell, Hero?: Zoe points out that Mal could have saved a man's life simply by dumping the loot from a heist. Mal replies that the loot is the only thing between them and abject poverty, but it's still not a choice they would have made during the war.

Simon: In all that time on the ship... I've always regretted... not being with you. Kaylee: With me? You mean to say... as in sex? Simon: I mean to say. Kaylee: To Hell with this. I'm gonna live!

Would Hurt a Child: The Operative is not above killing children, as he flat out informs Mal. As proof of this, when the characters arrive at Haven, Kaylee (the crew's most soft-hearted member) comes across a dead little boy about 10 years old (one whom she was briefly seen interacting with affectionately, earlier in the film). The Operative is aware that this is his Moral Event Horizon, but argues these deeds as being Necessary Evil.

You Are Already Dead: A variant, the Operative uses a nerve strike that, while not deadly in and of itself, does leave his victims paralyzed so he can stab them with his sword.

You Can't Go Home Again: Neither River nor Simon Tam can return to their home on Osiris, because doing so would get Simon arrested and River sent back to the Academy. On a more blunt note, Malcolm Reynolds can't go back to his home on Shadow because the Alliance virtually destroyed the planet during the Unification War, rendering it uninhabitable.

You Have Failed Me: Double Subversion. The Operative's superiors aren't angry that Simon got River out, as he clearly went to extreme lengths to accomplish it. They are, however, extremely angry that River's "handlers" showed their pet psychic to key members of Parliament. In person.

The Operative: Key. Members. Of Parliament. "Key." The minds behind every military, diplomatic, and covert operation in the galaxy, and you put them in a room with a psychic. [...] You know, in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords.

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